10 comments:

The only mention I found about the sensor size is in your article on ifixit.

You write "ccd sensor", is it right?Do you know if it really is a CCD, or is it a CMOS?

I was thinking about buying the smaller C500 for astrophotography and time lapse videos, but I could not find any details about the sensor size, witch is crucial in astrophotogrphy, so I maybe switch to c600 thanks to your article.

Please help me in not wasting money, I need to know as much as possible about this webcam.

I'm not sure how you would measure the exposure time on a webcam. I think it ends up being something like 1/30th of a second. You can probably just save it as video and stack the frames later.

I thought it was a CCD but it could be CMOS.

The lens screw size I can find tomorrow.

Unless size or cost are the primary concern, I think you would probably be better off with <a href="http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK>CHDK</a> and a Canon. I have the SX120IS and like it even though it is not yet supported by CHDK.

I'll probably disassemble the SX120 at some point after I build my "clean room" later this week.

I will never take the astronomy picture of the year, it takes far too many thousands of dollars to have the best equipment.

HD resolution is not needed too, but today SD webcams have such a small sensor, maybe 1/8 of an inch or even smaller, that no optics will ever be appropriate.HD ones have bigger sensors, but it wont be long they will make them smaller.

For the size of the lens screw, measure it only if it's a simple task, but if you need to dismantle it all over again just to do it, you can let go.

The longest exposure time for logitech webcams is normally 1/5 of a second, by activating the "rightlight" feature or by setting the video format to 5fps.Whit my logitech E3500 i have a little trick to let it go up to 1 second.

As far as I can tell the main difference between CCD and CMOS is having a global shutter vs rolling shutter. I took a few test images and it looks like the camera has a global shutter which would mean that it is a CCD instead of CMOS.

CCD should be more sensitive to low light, and I hate rolling shutter so, very good news thanks!

I wonder why logitech do not specify the kind of sensor, maybe for "experts" CCD is more attractive but for the general user it sounds just "old".

There are some kind of CMOS with global shutter but I think they are more expensive than CCDs (for now).

For the IR filter, I already noticed from your dissection pictures that it is a kind if easy removable mount like it was on my old glorious quickcam 3000 pro, that gave me so many satisfactions but now is dead. :(

Arduino seems a little complicated for my skills, but I am interested, bookmarked.

I am definitely going for the C600, with the knowledge you gave me, it seems perfect for me, I will not take the risk of buying the cheaper C500 just to find out that I needed the 600.

Yes, I measured my lenses and the screw is 12mm in diameter for the most common ones, I got just one smaller than this that is mounted on the logitech E3500 I think it's 10mm.(I can't find my caliber, damn, I measured with two boxes and a ruler!)